This needs an update...coming soon in 2009

These are random thoughts and in no particular order.

The temptation by some owners is to go bargain ball and save money.  Let's get this straight - you need to mix up your roster salary-wise and obviously you want to try to find the cheap player or rookie who will rise to stardom this year or get there in future years, but for the most part, the guys who have large salaries have them for a reason - they are based on the stats that are used in the games.

In building your list of position players one of the main things to keep in mind is AB.  You don't build up your game score on Batting Average or Slugging Pct.  You get it by Hits, Runs, RBI, HR, SB, etc.  Someone going 2-6 in a game is usually better than someone going 1-1 in a pinch-hitting role (unless, of course, that hit was a grand slam).  By appearing at the plate more, the first player has a greater chance of scoring, getting hits, getting hit by a pitch, and so on.

That's true even for your bench players.  The ideal people to be on your bench are real-life starters, since they fill in for you just as any starting player. 

Many owners ignore the minor league roster.  I think it's important in a few ways:

• You can pick up a million bucks by winning the minor league title (which is basically just a rotisserie league using minor league stats only).
• You can pick up future stars and lock them away years in advance of when they hit the big leagues and everyone else will know about them.  This is also a risk, just like in real life - you may end up picking a career minor leaguer or someone who just never cuts it in the bigs.
• Your minor league roster can have anyone making $250,000 or less.  So it's also the ideal place to hold cheap players who are actually playing in the big leagues.  This can be important during the season when you get hit with an injury on your major league squad.  There's a week lag between asking for a free agent and using him in your roster.  By having someone available in the minors, you can make that change immediately.  (The same holds true in using your taxi squad players.  The benefit of the taxi squad is that there is no salary maximum)

Think of the taxi squad as a disabled list...but players don't have to be injured to be on it...so it's more like the extra players on an NFL roster who don't play each week.

It's obviously a good idea to have guys on your bench who can fill in for starters.  They will fill in only if they play the position that's open.   Thus, having a guy who can play multiple positions can give you a great deal of flexibility in your bench.  A guy who can play 2B and SS might eliminate the need for you to carry an additional middle infielder. (Of course, you'd be SOL if you needed subs at both positions that day).

Many owners ignored having a good backup catcher this year.  Again if you're going for a backup, try to find another starter to give you a better shot of actually having him fill in.  Even when healthy, you've got to figure that the catcher is the guy on your team who will sit the most.  Then again, Springfield got hit by a rash of catcher injuries this year - he finally stopped trying to pick them up and stuck his catcher at the bottom of the lineup - basically taking an 0-5 and an error every game.  But he ended up with the best record.   Another approach might be to take the normal starter and the backup from the same major league team.

Thoughts on building a starting lineup:

• Build it like you would in real life.  You can try to analyze the scoring formula if you really want, but what it comes down to is: Players that get on base a lot and score a lot at the top of the lineup.  There's a bonus multiplier for total bases and runs for the top three players in your lineup.  For purposes of this game, BB, HBP, and SB count as total bases.
• There's a bonus multiplier for RBI for for positions 3-5.
• If you take the previous two together - it should be clear that your guy who hits for average and power should be in spot 3 - unless maybe his RBI total is extremely high - then maybe in the cleanup role.
• Players in positions 8-9 get fewer points for runs, RBI, total bases than anyone else - so stick your weak players there.
• If you're plagued by injuries at a position and are getting a lot of "Benchwarmer" entries show up in your box score, you might want to move the player down to 8 or 9 in the lineup to minimize the effect of the 0-5 of an Benchwarmer.
• You can hide a poor fielder by putting him at DH - his errors won't count.
• If I had to choose between two guys at DH - one an outfielder and one OF-1B, I'd pick the second guy.  Remember that your DH ends up being the first potential position sub.  If he can play multiple positions, that's a bonus for you because anyone on the bench can fill in at DH, but you might not have someone to fill the open field position on the bench.
• Your bench players will fill in starting at the first slot down to the fifth.  It's important to line them up in the order that you would like to see them come into the game regardless of field position.  If you've got two outfielder subs, make sure the one you want in the most is listed before the other.  This also holds for the whole bench.  I might need to use my backup 2B a lot.  But if he's not a big hitter or is in a slump, I'd want to stick him lower on the bench.  The fill-in process will find him based on fielding position if I need him.  But what's more important is that anyone can fill in at DH, and I don't want him up higher than anyone hitting well and for power so that he isn't used for DH instead of someone else.
• If one of your important hitters is having injury problems, you may not want to have him lead off or hit cleanup...whoever subs for him will hit in the exact same spot.  London did that in 2000 by actually putting Mark McGuire into a lower spot this season (during the time when it was unclear whether or not he would play) because whoever was usually filling in for him wasn't well-suited for cleanup.

In some close games this year, errors made the difference.  I experimented by taking an error out of the formula and the other team would have won (many times).  Errors get kind of hidden in the mix, but you should watch them and see if it changes who you think should start (or be the DH where the errors won't count). Also you can help yourself by having a bench good enough to avoid Benchwarmer use.  The Benchwarmer brings with him two automatic errors.